Sunday-funday, or at least that’s what it was in Madrid. After a solid 10 hours of sleep, nice showers, and getting breakfast in the lobby, we were ready to hit the streets again.
Sunday is the day of Madrid’s famous market, El Rastro, in the La Latina area of the city. El Rastro is an open-air market that takes over the city for blocks and blocks on Sundays from 8-3; every inch is filled with vendors selling clothes, electronics, household items, antiques, food, and live musicians. We spent the better part of three hours wandering around the stalls and taking in the vendors yelling in hoarse Spanish. I bought a plate for my collection from an antiques dealer for 3 Euro. It is definitely hand-painted, though I’m not sure it’s old enough to quality as “antique.” Nonetheless, I’m excited about it as this is plate number five in my collection of 6. I only need one super special one from Córdoba to complete the set.
El Rastro
El Rastro
Dog carrying the smoking owners pack of cigarettes- hilarious!
Photography stand
Lights
The thong vendor man....
Street performers in El Rastro
More street performers
On our way back to the Metro from El Rastro is started to pour rain, so we ducked into a public building that was open, which, as it turns out, was an elections polling place for yesterdays Spanish Presidential Elections. On our journey to wait out the rain and find a bathroom, we got to sneak a peak into Spanish polling. Its so much more relaxed that in the United States; for the most part you pick up a ballet and drop it in a box. They use the honor system for checking yourself off the list of those who voted. From what I gathered you could vote as many times as you wanted. I guess rocking the vote in Spain means vote early, vote often. Also, the poll workers were affiliated with the two main political parties, PP (Partido Popular) and PSOE (Socialist Party). They were walking around the polling stations with lanyards and party flags. In the US, voters can’t enter a polling place wearing paraphernalia of any political party, so I was shocked to see poll workers promoting their political beliefs. I wonder how many times each of them voted yesterday. After all, the ballets were just sitting on tables all over the place. Anyways, I think out jumping into a random building to use the restrooms and get out of the rain was a worthwhile stop. I certainly learned a lot about Spanish elections!
On our way back to the hotel I stopped at Manuel Becerra, the Metro stop by Ben’s piso, and met up with 11 Kawanhee boys for lunch. Kawanhee has a huge Spanish contingency, and there are a bunch of Americans also working and studying over here in Spain, so Ben and Tripp organized a lunch at a little restaurant around he corner. It was fun to see all the guys from camp, but it was also really strange to see them out of the context of Weld.
Chase and Fernando
After lunch we did as the Spaniards do, and went back to the hotel and took a little siesta. Our next plan of attack was walking through Parque Retiro and over to the Mueso del Prado and Reina Sofia for their free hours on Sunday evening.
El Estanque en Parque Retiro
mi madre
The Parque was beautiful, but when we got to the Prado it was closed. The woman explained that they closed before siesta to allow all their workers a chance to vote in the national elections, and it was the same case with Reina Sofia. I understand encouraging workers to vote, but it is entirely unnecessary to shut down the largest tourist attractions just for voting. What’s wrong with just preventing workers from working a double shift on voting day to make sure they have time to vote? Or, even better, how about they go to the polls any time in the past week since they’ve been open? Voting isn’t just one day here, although most people end up voting on the final Sunday, but seriously. We planned out entire day around the free hours, and would have skipped siesta and paid admission had we known it was going to close early. When we looked on the websites for hours and information they said nothing about closing early today- typical Spain. Luckily we’ll be back in Madrid next Sunday night and will go the museums, although we’re going to be really tired after running a half marathon… Oh well. They’re worth it.
Luckily our next destination wasn’t closed on account of elections, so we just moved our itinerary up a bit and headed over to Mercado San Miguel. I went to the Mercado back in September when I was in Madrid with Preshco, but I didn’t get anything to eat or drink because I was recovering from being really sick. It was so nice that we got to go back last night and sample a bunch of different wines and get multiple rounds of tapas. We also got a prime location at a table in the center or the sitting/standing/socializing area and ended up meeting this really nice single Belgian woman from New York City who was traveling alone on business and chatted with her for about an hour and shared some tapas. It was really fun, but it was also great when she left and we had some time to soak in the market just Mommy and Maurine. We got the best calamari either of us has ever had, a plate of olives, grilled peppers, a cheese board, and ice cream.
Sangria and olives
Cheese sample board
Together in Madrid!
Roasted peppers with sea salt, and wine, of course
Happy momma
Happy Maurine
Kebabs and Olives
Best calamari I've ever, ever had...
Empty wine glasses in the gallery cleaner's cart...
Ice cream! Lavender cone and chocolate/hazelnut in a dish
I’m not sure what else I can say except that it was a blast to have tapas and hang out! Such a Spanish experience, and she loved it. Sunday-funday for sure.
After Mercado San Miguel we headed back to the Metro station on Puerta del Sol, and ended up watching a bunch of political victory celebrations and protests for a while. By this time news had been released that Partido Popular leader Mariano Rajoy had won the elections. There was one group drunkenly dancing around to loud music celebrating their abstention from voting because they didn’t agree with any of the political candidates. Another group, just a few yards over, was burning trash and jumping though the flames.
Man photographing from on top of the Sol Metro Station
Look closely- you can see the man jumping through the fire
Man drinking beer, still attached to the plastics of his six-pack, at Puerta del Sol
I asked a local guy if they were burning in celebration or protest, but his response was “neither.” They were just getting drunk and running through fire for the sake of being crazy. These people will seriously take any excuse to get wild and party. Part of it is a backlash in the post-Franco era that is still going on, but party of it is also cultural. I like the enthusiasm for going out and having a good time, but is burning trash the best way to celebrate whatever it is (or isn’t) they’re celebrating?
Finally, after watching this guy jump through the flames many times and likely sterilize himself for life, we got on the Metro back to the hotel and got in bed. I actually ended up staying up for a bit watching the election returns on TV and listening to Rajoy’s acceptance speech, but I shut the tube off relatively quickly.
Rajoy's acceptance speach
This morning was extremely early by Spanish standards- 6:45! We got up, showered, ate breakfast, and took the Metro to Atocha Renfe train station in Central Madrid. Currently we’re flying through the olive fields of the Spanish countryside on our way to Córdoba on the high-speed train and getting a bit of homework done. I can’t wait to arrive and show Mommy where I’ve been living in Córdoba and have her meet Maricarmen and Carlos and meet Kim and meet Paki and see Preshco and my life and my plate collection and photo project and Sevillanas and Pilar and Calle Postrera and Rubio the cat and the everything!! VALE.
No comments:
Post a Comment